Let the Pendulum Fall
by Puppet without Strings
Summary: He's lived for thousands of years trying to go back, now it's his time, time travel fic! Sakura,Sasuke bashing.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:So this is my first story, so review and tell me if you think it's crap.**

**Prologue: The end of the end and the birth of a beginning**

Cold blue eyes scanned the desolate wasteland emotionlessly. The lone figure behind the eyes calm and erect taking one last look at his surroundings before he left.

It was odd the figure thought that he should feel so detached, it was after all the last time he would see the wasteland. "_No not the last time, just the last time as a wasteland." _The figure reassured himself

A array of kanji glowing faintly behind the figure drew his attention. He surveyed his masterpiece with a detached glance. It had taken him millennia to create it, he had only received the basics in fuinjutsu from his sensei.

He had cut himself countless times in order to draw practice seals on the ground, lacking the paper and ink to do so normally. "_After all, without trees you can't get paper, another downside to the end of the world."_He mused to himself.

He remembered crawling out of the rubble, skin burned off and nearly dead, gazing on the lifeless world. He reminisced about how his tenant was slowly absorbed until even it left him. He had been devastated when it finally left him, they weren't particularly friendly with each other it had been better then nothing. And while the beast's chakra kept him alive over the centuries he had still felt empty. Not even the toads could keep him company as the summon world had been destroyed too.

When he had finally been caught by Akatsuki he had struggled against his bonds even in the extraction process. He had, through sheer force of will, been able to overload the sealing process. While he had survived the results of cataclysmic, the full force of the Kyuubi's chakra, as well as every member of Akatsuki's had exploded with the power of a million nuclear bombs (**AN:Best analogy I could think of, he obviously doesn't know what a nuke is**), most of the world crust had been peeled away to reveal lava. He had been in the "eye of the storm" so to speak and had barely escaped alive. As he fell into a coma and regained his skin, and the Kyuubi regained it's chakra, the dust settled and wasteland that was the world was shown in all of it's glory.

He had spent the first century or so simply drowning in his sorrow and trying to kill himself. Eventually he realized that he would be no better than that bastard of a Uchiha if he wasted his life like that. He had trained himself in every aspect he could think of before coming to fuinjutsu. He then threw himself into a stream of lava for not realizing what he could do with it.

His life now revolved around creating this one moment this one chance to make everything right. He had blown off his limbs or even his head with an experimental seal, but it never slowed him down, he regenerated them fast enough that he never realized they were gone. He shrugged of whatever injury he had and rushed forward, eager to give himself another.

Naruto began to walk to his destiny, thinking of all that he had lost. Kakashi, impaled through the gut by Sasuke. Kiba and Akamaru devoured by Zetsu before his eyes. Neji, sacrificed himself to push his pregnant wife Tenten out of the way of a shuriken attack. Shino, roasted along with his colony by Madara, Naruto smiled at the memory, who knew the bug boy would be strong enough to get Madara himself to kill him, and using Amaterasu to top it all off. Lee and Gai, sacrificing themselves by opening the 8 gates to kill Sasuke. Ten Ten, blowing herself and her unborn child up in an attempt to kill Zetsu. Kurenai and Choji , finally killing the plant bastard before succumbing to his poison. The sand siblings, brought down along with the other Kage's in the battle to retrieve Killer Bee. Shikamaru and Ino, crushed by the Sanbi after Madara released his Biju upon the world. Tsunade, rushing from her hospital bed to fight Madara only to be tortured by Tsuyomi. Before finally she cut down with Shizune. Hinata… Naruto stopped mere inches away from the sealing array, remembering the one girl that had always believed in him despite the villages views, she had loved him, and had died in a last ditch attempt to save him. A tear slid from his eye, he had never loved her… but her death hurt more than all the others combined. He snorted suddenly "A thousand times more then that pink haired bitch at least." he muttered to himself.

Oh yes he hadn't forgotten Sakura, the traitor had backstabbed them all in order to please her "precious Sasuke-kun". Bah she made him sick, if it were not for her Akatsuki would never have gotten there location. The guerilla war against Akatsuki would have still gone on, hell they might even have won it. The desolate wasteland that he had spent his sentence in might have been a vibrant world filled with trees, people, and the world might be a utopia. Ok that might be stretching it a bit but it would have a hell of a lot better than this.

Still if this works then he'll be able to give everyone what's coming to them. If it doesn't, well the backlash will probably ensure that he'll never have to worry about anything again. Naruto Stepped into the sealing array and began to feed chakra into it. Looking down on the plain that was once his home town he smiled. The monument was there all 5 faces looking at him with a proud look on his face, Naruto wondered how many time he had rebuilt the monument whenever it's features where wiped clean by the biting winds that the wasteland held.

The sealing array was 50% charged. He smiled as the world around him began to fall apart. Fissures springing up from the ground, winds whipping away everything in their path, as his seal consumed not lonely his Chakra but all the Natural Chakra in the area. 75%, a boulder whipped towards the Hokage Monument and tore off his father's face. Naruto winced sympathetically "_Sucks to be you dad._" Naruto thought before chuckling. 100% "Fuin." Naruto whispered to nobody, and yet he felt like everyone from Haku and Hinata to Madara and Sasuke was listening. There was a flash of blue, then Naruto opened his eyes.

He felt the ground give way as a giant toad jumped about. He heard the screams of dying men pleading for someone anyone to save them. He smelt burning wood and the scent of pines. He tasted hot blood dripping into his mouth. He sensed jutsu going off and the dark killing intent of the Kyuubi. He saw the determined face of his father, blood dripping from his mouth as he faced down one of Konoha's greatest threat's, the Shinigami hanging behind him like a malevolent shadow. Then through all these senses he heard one word, "Fuin." As pain erupted on his stomach Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze could only think one thing "_Perfect._"


	2. Growing Up

Disclaimer: I didn't say this last chapter and I'm only going to say this once, I don't own Naruto and if I did it wouldn't be nearly as screwed up as it is now/

_Italics-Thoughts_

**Bold-Jutsu**

Regular-Speaking

Chapter 2- Growing up

XXXXXXX-time skip

_________-scene break

Sarutobi massaged his temples trying to stave off the inevitable headache. He had been listening to the council and village in its' self call for the death of Minato's son.

He sighed, ever since he had told them about Naruto it had been "kill the demon" or "we can't let it escape". To add to all of this Sarutobi was beginning to think they may be right. The child had just been lying there cold blue eyes studying everything around it. _"No." _He chided himself _"The demon was just sealed by a god it's self there's no way it could get out." _Maybe it was a enhancement for the jinchuriki , the Kyuubi had never been sealed before so there was no way to tell.

"ENOUGH!" He yelled tired over the meeting "This meeting is adjourned, I will not have this village trying to kill an innocent baby. There is now a S ranked secret about the Naruto's tenant to all persons born in the past three years and forward, should it be revealed the perpetrator will be punished by death by torture. The only exceptions to this law are Uzumaki Naruto and myself. This law will remain unless revoked by myself, Naruto or a future Hokage. Dismissed." With that Hizruen left carrying Naruto.

Naruto was happy, not just happy ecstatic. He had spent countless years trying to get back and now he was here. He couldn't tell you how much of a relief it was to see someone else, to see anyone, hell he probably wouldn't be happy if Madara were to show up in the future, ok that may be stretching it a bit but Kisame or Itachi were to appear it would be a welcome change. It had been a few days since the council meeting and by the sounds of the riots everyone was happy.

Most people would get bored after the first few hours of hearing people yell "death to the demon". Naruto wasn't bored, far from it he was hyper-alert. He was at his most vulnerable for the next few years, hell an elite jonin could probably take him down. Naruto had (roughly) 10% of his chakra left, chakra was made up of physical and spiritual energies, about 60% of his chakra had been from the Kyuubi, 30% he got from his physical being, and the last 10% he got from his mind. He had thousands of years of knowledge and experience, allowing him to have about 1/6 of the chakra of the kyuubi from it alone. Also everything was new, nothing that he had remembered, and seeing the old man's face, priceless. He had almost forgotten what it looked like, the last time he saw it was in a picture on top of his coffin.

However now Naruto was faced with a difficult decision, what should his "demonic" ability be, should he use sand like Garra did, or lava, no lava was that abilty for the carrier of the 4 tails, or should he try ice, wood, wind… probably since it was his best element, then again there was always metal to consider, so many difficult choices. After centuries of training, using shadow clone's to help, he was able to use 2 or more elements simultaneously. For anyone other than him with centuries to practice and shadow clones to help speed up the training he had gotten the hang of it. It wasn't hard to do simply time consuming; it required the rough equivalent of the 2nd Hokage's ability in water for each of the elemental affinities. However he would have to choose soon as the 2 ANBU "guards" where approaching him menacingly. Naruto idly wondered why they were in ANBU, after all weren't ANBU supposed to chosen by the Hokage himself, that doesn't say much about his father or the 3rd. Still it at least explained why no one stopped the mobs that beat him up, why was he helping Konoha again.

Pushing thoughts of betrayal to the back of his mind he contemplated the kunai knife heading for his jugular, he could take the hit have the fox heal him and take crap from the village again… or, a blade of wind cut off the first ANBU's head, the second Anbu was sliced in half. Naruto looked dispassionately at them as the second ANBU started up an alert before falling to the ground dead. _"Someone's going to have hell to pay for this."_ Naruto thought dryly.

In the Hokage tower the 3rd Hokage sneezed sending 3 hours of paperwork out the window, before falling into a fire caused by the riot.

Sarutobi looked mournfully at the scene below him, a small boy rushing through fields of traps as he dodged jutsu fired by nearby ninja. The council had tried their best to get the boy killed, when he and some of the (sane) council members wouldn't relent they chose the next best thing, ROOT. The Aburame had gone with the decision and with it they had gotten a majority now, his hands were tied. The only comfort he had was that the boy hadn't killed someone, yet.

It had been 3 year since then and Naruto was becoming the weapon every village would want. With the automatic defense the wind granted him Naruto was untouchable, and with his ability to shred anything the air touched, he was near invincible. However that wasn't enough for Danzo, he had Naruto learn anything and everything a Ninja would need, and when it was offered Naruto would take it in like a black hole. From kunai throwing to jutsu of every type to history everything was learned. What was scary was the pace it was learned, it made Kakashi who graduated from the academy at 6 look slow. However what was about to happen down in the training area would make Danzo's expectations skyrocket.

Naruto was angry, no beyond angry he was pissed. He had been spoon fed Danzo's fanatic idea's for 3 years of his life and what was just sad is that the first word he spoke was torture, and no-one reacted to it. Add that to the fact he had just learned that the Kumo diplomat incident had happened again and he was murderous. That meant Neji would be a stuck up prick again. Honestly Neji had been as bad as the spoiled Uchiha before he had some sense knocked into him. And it also meant that Hinata would have confidence issues again, I mean really, it had taken her years for her to get over that and even then she was still shy. He had expected an ordinary life, well ordinary for him at least, just one without beatings from village mobs, and occasionally stopping a disaster like helping Itachi stay in Konoha (the poor bastard) or killing Sasuke during the Uchiha massacre if he couldn't stop Itachi. But no, from what he had pieced together the Aburame thought that because of his "demonic" ability over wind, that it would be logical for him to be turned into a weapon. Now he was under surveillance 24/7, and he couldn't trick multiple Anbu guards with one of his illusions.

Of course he couldn't really blame the Aburame, in their shoes he probably would have done the same thing. From what he had seen from Shino they had a cynical world view like Danzo, calculating that the sacrifice of the few was best for the many, that didn't stop him from being pissed off. Hell he was so angry that he missed a trap coming at him. He saw it in his peripheral vision and instinctively brought up a wall of ice to stop it. Danzo was looking at him with a mixture of surprise, awe and glee. _"Shit"_ was the only thing Naruto could think before a ROOT member swooped down and escorted him to his cell/bedroom.

A dull thud could be heard within the depths of ROOT's headquarters. A small ball hit the concrete wall pivoted to bounce off the floor and into a small boy's hands. The ball was a memento of sorts, he had gotten it after his "first kill". The target had been a politician, ironically one whose family had been killed by the Kyuubi. He had joined them soon enough, and yet he on his way back to ROOT he had seen the ball in a market. Naruto had taken the ball not only to assuage his boredom but to remind him of his humanity, of his individuality. He had to hand it to Danzo, he was one hell of a brainwasher. If he had gone immediately back in time once after Armageddon he probably would be as dull and emotionless as any other generic member of ROOT.

His memento reminded him of Sai, it was just like his journal. Naruto hadn't thought much about the painter after the apocalypse. He hadn't known him as long as one of the Rookie 9 or Team Gai, and yet, now he could empathize with the boy. He didn't even know how he died, he had been part of the army sent to recapture Killer Bee, most were killed by Biju but some survived and escaped, or were captured and imprisoned by Akatsuki. They hadn't imprisoned key fighters like Gaara or his siblings, but they were well known, however besides form a brief encounter with Sasuke, Sai was unknown. Had he been tortured for information before killed, killed by one of the Biju, or had he been alive when the end came.

Naruto had never known his fate, he hadn't even seen Sai in this life, regardless of them both being in ROOT.

Danzo smirked looking upon the file in his hands. It was the results of a hero's sacrifice, political machinations, severe training and a demonic possession, it was Naruto Uzumaki's file. He looked over the file's contents his grin growing ever wider, a rare sight for the old war hawk.

While his age and chakra control limited his Tai and Genjutsu and he had not yet contacted his demon, his progress was nothing less of legendary. He had accomplished what took some lifetime's in 3 years of training. The fuinjutsu was an ironic touch that he showed enormous promise in. Really there were only 3 flaws in his training, the first being that he couldn't apply his curse seal without it dissolving soon after, the reason the boy's father had to make the seal so powerful. The second was he couldn't encourage the boy to contact his demon because of Sarutobi's law, he couldn't even take the risk because of the lack of the cursed seal. The final flaw, and by far the worst, was Naruto's emotions.

Despite the fact the boy had grown up in metaphorical hell, he somehow acquired morals and emotions along the way. Even after he had his first kill last month, he had shaken it off and if anything gained more emotions. Sometimes he was as sentimental as that old fool Sarutobi, other times he was as cold blooded as the finest of his ROOT's.

Danzo had watched as Konoha slowly lost it's power over the years. During the first and second shinobi wars Konoha had been the greatest of the shinobi nations striking down all that were in their way. However in the third war the leaf had slowly been degrading in power. They had a once in a century chance after the 3rd war, Iwa weakened, Kiri embroiled in yet another civil war, and Kumo rebuffed and short on ninja, it had been a strategists dream. Yet Sarutobi and the Namikaze brat had gone sentimental and stopped the war. Now he saw the results. The Kyuubi had attacked, causing massive damage and untold deaths it had come at Konoha, yet even after losing their Hokage they still had the Sanin and at least 70% of their ninja, they were still strong. Then Orochimaru had betrayed them a year after the attack. Tsunade, heartbroken after losing her brother, lover and now teammate had finally left. Then came the international troubles.

Kumo had been cocky, demanding retribution when they had tried to steal one of their bloodlines, not only that but they had gotten it. If Sarutobi had acted upon it they could have crushed Kumo, Kiri wouldn't have come to it's aid, Iwa was still licking it's wounds after the war, Suna would have jumped at the chance to help their allies and help their economy along. They could have crushed Kumo, without even losing international reputation, and yet they had given into their demands.

As much as it pained Danzo to say it, Konoha's nin were losing their power, sure they had some powerful ninja but they were nothing compared to the powerhouses Danzo had seen in his early years. The Sannin were an example of this, while powerful they were nothing compared to Sarutobi. The Yondaime didn't follow this, but all of his power was based on two techniques rather than the multitude that the greatest of Shinobi had. Yet Sarutobi didn't realize this, setting the bar for ninja constantly lower. Danzo himself was unsure if he could repair all the damage the old fool had caused, yet if he didn't try than Konoha would fall. Naruto was the key to this, trained properly he could easily disrupt the balance of power in Konoha in his favor.

With every second of the boy's training, he grew closer to taking Sarutobi's position; soon the son may even surpass the father. However first he had more important matters to attend to, like starting propaganda up against the Uchiha clan. They would eventually betray Konoha and if Danzo could stop the rebellion the PR to his ROOT forces would improve. Turning back to his work he gave the Uchiha 3 years at most before they planned a coup.

A seven year old Naruto slashed through the missing nin. It was a simple mission for Naruto these days, Search and Destroy. No what made it different for Naruto from the countless others was where the ninja were holed up, Yata's tomb. Housing several powerful artifacts, but only one interested him, the one that had been there for centuries and would always return their when it's owner died Only the greatest of structures survived the apocalypse, Yata's was one of these places. Through luck and amazing structural integrity it had survived through the eons, holding it's precious treasure.

The Ninja had only braved through the first floor after finding the second floor trapped. With them out of the way Naruto began to brave the tomb of one of the greatest samurai to ever live. Darts, arrows and the occasional pitfall awaited him but they were all stopped or avoided. Finally Naruto stood before a pair of colossal doors. Without pause he melted his way through them into a small chamber. In the chamber sat three pedestals, one holding a golden shield, one a silver and the last a beat up tin shield. Ignoring the shields (to think he fell for them once (and got a few arrows in the back for his troubles)) Naruto flared his chakra and watched it hover over a spot in the corner to his right. Reaching into that spot Naruto felt his body quiver before something clicked into place in his head. A bright grin lighted up the otherwise black tomb, Yata's mirror was his once again

The air in the chamber was thick with tension. On one side was the civilian portion of the council with the elders and on the other the clans, minus the Uchiha. It had been less then a month since the massacre and word about Itachi had already spread throughout the entire Elemental Nations. Bounties appearing for him dead or alive, the bounties in the millions However, the S-Ranked "missing nin" was not the reason the leaders of Konoha had convened. No the reason was that of a eight year old boy standing between the two factions. In front of him were multiple undecided council members among them the Hyuga and Aburame.

It began with the opening statement, Danzo stood up and read out the boy's record "21 C-Rank missions, 52 B-Rank missions, 23 A-rank missions, and 6 S-Rank missions, all together gaining the village of Konoha 7,800,000 ryo, all accomplished by Naruto Uzumaki. He is growing to be the type of weapon we need against our enimies. Suna has been training their jinchuriki to become a weapon. Iwa, Kiri, Kumo, even Taki have jinchuriki. Iwa, Kiri, and Kumo have 2 jinchuriki each even. Thanks to the Yondaime we have the opportunity to create a weapon from the most powerful of the Biju. A BIju that may be able to take on multiple lesser Biju. Why wouldn't we want such a weapon." There was a smattering of applause from Danzo's side and some of the undecided members of the council.

"Exactly Advisor Danzo and how many fatalities has this boy racked up, how much of him has been shattered like Itachi." Shikaku Nara drawled out in a bored tone as several of the undecided members shivered at the name. "It would be best to allow him to join the Academy and enjoy whatever is left of his childhood before he breaks like Itachi did."

_"Clever, Shikaku striking while the iron is hot as it were, playing on their fears but will it be enough?"_ Thought Naruto as he lazily watched the proceedings. He wasn't that worried, either they would let him go, or Haku and Zabuza would have a new missing-nin as a friend. Those beatings the village had given him in his previous life and the harsh ROOT training had whittled down his loyalty to Konoha. Add that to the fact that Itachi had left Konoha again meant that the whiny bastard was being treated like a god again by the village, well he'd probably cause some civilian deaths before he left. Besides he was sure that Zabuza would love to have a jinchuriki on his side to help defeat Kiri, especially since their kage was a jinchuriki.

Sadly it was not to be, after some pink haired banshee began screaming for his death some of the undecided members switched to his side. This however didn't give Naruto the majority needed to get out of ROOT, at least until Sarutobi pointed out he could be a bodyguard for some of the clan heirs if he were in their team, damn political favoritism. However until their graduation he would be staying in ROOT.

**AN:Sorry it took me so long to update. First my computer crashed and well, I looked back and saw how much Kishimoto has been screwing up the manga, so I needed a break from anything relating to the cannon what-so-ever, well hope you enjoy and no Naruto may be able to wield 2 elements at once but he doesn't have the sharingan and won't use the mirror with Susanoo like Itachi did.**


End file.
